The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Do you love baseball? I do. As this season winds down and teams head to the playoffs, I am already thinking of next spring and the first pitch. I always wait with anticipation to see how the team will perform every year. Will we have a winning season and make the playoffs in the fall? Do we have the right players to be a winning team?

Sales managers often ask us how to create the kind of atmosphere where talented people want to be. To create a sales culture that attracts and develops top talent, jobs need to contain an element of fun. Fun isn’t all about ping pong tables and fluffy couches—there are so many other ways to create a fun and inviting culture.

Fun can be spelled out many different ways. Here are just a few.

In an article in Time Magazine describing the new generation of workers, many summarizations were made. Here are a few quotes from that article: “They are thought of as the entitlement, me, me, me generation,” “Want to postpone growing up,” “Overly sensitive at best and lazy at worst.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Which generation do you think this article was about? You may be quick to jump on Millennials for your answer, but you would be wrong! This article was written about 16-year-olds and is dated from a 1990 Time issue on Generation X!

Every older generation views the younger ones with that “What is up with the kids these days?” mindset. Scary to say, but you have become your parents! Millennials are the new YOU!

We hear that word often, but who exactly are Millennials? Let’s look at a quick breakout of your workforce by category:

I’m in the midst of touring colleges with my son. There are so many choices and great things about all the schools. There are the big SEC football schools, schools in college towns and big cities, large campuses and small. So how will he choose? Finding the right fit when you are a senior in high school seems like such a concrete and monstrous decision.

The same can be true when graduating from college and looking for a job. What do millennials look for when searching for their “perfect” job? Many articles have been written about what they are searching for—collaborative work environments, recognition, opportunities for growth, flexible hours and a purpose to name a few. How does your company stand out to this group?

As managers, we want to get everything we can out of our sales team. The harder they work, the more they will deliver, right? What if we looked at our sales teams differently? What if we asked instead, "What can we do to see results and stay on target, while keeping our team happy and ready to take on more?"

In an earlier post, we talked about being a judge on the Sales Voice and how to listen for great talent. Now let’s talk about coaching on the Sales Voice. 

So you decided to push your button and turned your chair. Now what?!

How do you know when you have the perfect candidate for a sales position? Is it their stellar resume? Do they look professional? Do they come highly recommended? That is what most managers look for when hiring. It’s the way it has always been done, right? 

What if you looked at hiring for your next sales position differently? Pretend for a moment that you are Blake Shelton or Adam Levine on The Voice and your chair is completely turned around. Now what?